Meet

Zunum Aero

Regional travel is ripe for reinvention. Options for journeys up to a thousand miles are far from ideal, limited to slow travel on the ground and air service consolidating to large hubs. As a result, door-to-door times have not improved for decades, and the only alternative, high-speed rail, is limited by heavy capital needs for a few dense corridors. Zunum Aero aims to change that. Founded in 2013 by tech industry veteran Ashish Kumar and aerospace engineer Matt Knapp, the company is developing a family of commercial hybrid-to-electric aircraft for regional air service. Zunum aircraft are designed to light up thousands of regional airports that are largely unused today, bringing high-speed travel to every community. Travelers will depart from nearby airports to fly closer to their destinations, bypassing large hubs to get door-to-door anywhere from two to four times faster than today. And lower costs, combined with much lower emissions and noise, will make regional travel far more affordable, more comfortable and kinder to the environment.

"Just like the auto industry is being transformed by electric cars, the regional airline industry is ripe for disruption by electric propulsion. After monitoring the space for a while, we believe that Zunum is well ahead of others in efforts to transform the industry, and we are excited to have a seat at the table."

—Bonny Simi, President, JetBlue Technology Ventures

"Bonny and the team at JetBlue Technology Ventures have been powerful partners in our journey to a new era of air travel. We appreciate their early view of the transformation of regional air, their very active support of our fundraising and market development efforts, and their rich experience with bringing innovative service models to market.”